(NOTE: This opinions expressed in this article are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of DerpySquad, Spazz, Marimo, or Sprocket.) When asked about potential challenges in marketing MLP as… (More)

This nonprofit fan-made episode was created after having obtained legal permission from both Hasbro and Time Warner to use their characters – and took exactly 54 weeks to create. We are not associated with Hasbro or Time Warner in any way. To learn more about the film, feel free to visit the official website at http://www.doublerainboom.com where you can download our storyboards, animatics, puppet rigs, backgrounds, promotional videos, and more!

Double Rainboom is in no way designed to infringe upon the rights of Hasbro, DHX Media, Cartoon network, or Time Warner. It is, completely and utterly, a fan-based concept and intended for free distribution for the promotion of My Little Pony and The Powerpuff Girls. Hasbro and Cartoon Network are the sole and exclusive owners of all rights in this product, and all uses thereof are enuring to Hasbro’s and Cartoon Network’s benefit. We agree to never challenge Hasbo’s nor Cartoon Network’s ownership of all rights to this product.

How interesting – I’m not sure whether I’ll like it or not, but I’m glad I was made aware of it.

Shiek927

After watching it, I can wholeheartedly say I enjoyed it.

I wasn’t expecting perfection, nor should you….I was more than impressed that something like this even exists – it really speaks a lot about the talent and dedication of everyone involved to make something like this in the first place.

The Animation was easily the highlight, which did largely succeed in emulating the show….at times it seemed a bit “watery” and kind of funny, and many many moments you could tell were just attempts at showing off the animation…but I can’t really deny them that, in a way — again, I’m more impressed by the dedication of the team and the fact this even exists…so I’m not really bothered by the animation being less-than-perfect. Many times, I pointed out and laughed that they managed to capture a certain facial expression or some such.

The story could be a bit more controversial, but I ultimately enjoyed it….the humor was, unsurprisingly, just Easter Eggs, memes, fanjokes etc from the very beginning to the very end….the problem I have with that kind of humor, especially in excess, is that, point blank, if you don’t get the reference, you don’t get the joke…..everybody else is laughing, and you’re just sitting there confused, feeling left out. In the subject of fairness however, you could argue that only those who would make something like this, and watch it, would more likely then not get, at least, most of the references (for example, most of us are 90’s kids, and grew up watching shows on Cartoon Network for instance)….I’m not sure if I even got all of them, though I wouldn’t be surprised I catch more the more times I watch it: it would be nice if a full list was made of everything after watching.

I also just generally enjoyed watching Twilight and Rainbow as the main characters, given I just anything that focuses on these two, because they make such a good duo….I hope they specifically will continue to get focus in FiM as well. The Cloud Trollface was easily my favorite part XD. The ending with the letter to Celestia however, just felt like an excuse to throw in a letter at the last minute.

The voices were well done…the volume was a bit on the quiet-side, but the choices of voice-actors were good and matched the characters well enough. The music as well, was also well-chosen and the sound-effects were just like the show.

I think, as a whole, what it comes down too is that I was trying to watch it with an optimistic perspective….You could probably nitpick and shred this to death if you wanted, but I just don’t see that as fair — the very fact this even exists, to me, is more than enough, and you have to appreciate the time, dedication, and talent that went into making this for everyone. I wasn’t expecting perfection in any level (whether animation, voices, story, jokes or whatever), nor do I think you even should….I simply tried to enjoy it for what it was worth, and not with a critical eye — ultimately, this is a fan-made project after all, and you shouldn’t watch it with the standards or criticism you would normally reserve for the show: I just don’t see that as fair, when so much went into even creating this in the first place. Others can say that, that’s just an excuse, but I personally don’t agree with that…again, I’m more than happy, surprised, and thankful that this even exists in the first place, never mind nitpicking this and that about it.

You can easily tell that the team had a LOT of fun making this “episode”…and you hope, as part of the crew, that it will spill over into the audience as they watch it — even for the bits I found less than perfect, I still enjoyed because you can just tell the giddiness and dedication that went behind it. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t at all, and viewers fail to pick up on things the way you wanted (for example, some jokes or moments may have flown over people’s heads completely because they were in-jokes perhaps)….again, the jokes can be seen as just a collection of memes and references, but I personally don’t mind that – it can be seen as lazy humor, and if you don’t get the reference, you basically miss the joke (so I can imagine someone watching this and not getting ANY of the jokes simply because they personally didn’t see/watch/read/etc the media based on it), which is not necessarily anyone’s fault. Again, I typically like that sort of humor (and the FiM episode “Magic Duel” basically was, in my own words, “one giant fanfiction episode” which is exactly why I loved it), so I personally didn’t mind it though I can imagine others despising it, and I undoubtedly didn’t get all the jokes the first time around. I can understand though, if you feel it’s lazy humor, and it’s better and more creative to just make your own jokes which the audience has never heard before, so no one is potentially missing out on anything.
‘
Overall, It was an unbelievable achievement really — not just for the people involved, but for the fandom at large…because it truly speaks volumes on the creativity and dedication of all the fans that something like this could be made. Yes, it’s not like there hasn’t been fan-animations before, but it almost feels like a threshold has been crossed that something of this length and effort has been created…and supposedly another “episode”, “Journey of the Spark” is being made and other full-length animations as well, if my info is correct, so we can look forward to more from these in the near-future. It makes you feel, even as far as the fandom has come already, that most exciting stuff has yet to come…it makes you feel excited, that’s for sure :)

Anonymous

Just watched it.
Basically:
Animation and voice work are pretty good for being fan made, and considering the amount of people that worked on it, should have some praise sent to then for that.

The story and writing, though?
It’s obvious that someone else should have written this, because those parts are pretty bad.

Overall: as a fan work, it’s alright I guess. The writing, dialog and characterization is bad, but the visual and audio stuff is good (which is good for the guy in charge, as he’s an animation student and this was supposed to be his final project or something along those lines).

Anonymous

The really shouldn’t have advertise it as a proper episode. Double Rainboom is much more of a fanfiction in animated form. It’s great and fun and everything – provided you don’t harbour wrong expectations.

Anonymous

pretty much
i think calling it an “episode” is what really got people’s expectations all mixed up

is it 30 minutes like a real episode? sure, but does that make it FIM quality? lol, nope

this is just another silly and fun fan animation
leave the REAL “episodes” to the folks at DHX

freddie

I loved it. Was surprised by the animation and I thought the story was simple but funny.